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Premier League: Mark Hughes praises Stoke's character against Norwich

Mark Hughes praised the character of his 10-man Stoke side as they held Norwich to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.

Last Updated: 08/03/14 7:14pm

Mark Hughes: Happy with the point at Norwich

The visitors spurned a succession of early chances in Saturday's Premier League encounter and the Canaries made them pay with a 56th-minute Bradley Johnson opener from a Robert Snodgrass' corner.

But Stoke equalised on 73 minutes via Jon Walters' penalty after substitute John Guidetti had been brought down by Sebastien Bassong in the box before the forward was sent off soon afterwards for a high challenge on Alex Tettey.

The Potters then had to dig deep to see out the draw and take a valuable point from Carrow Road.

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Hughes agreed was a good point, telling Sky Sports: "We feel so, given the circumstances of the game.

"It was difficult obviously when we went down to 10 men. We had to hang on to what we had but up to that point, certainly in the first half, I thought we had the better chances, more control of the game and took the game to Norwich.

"I think they had a couple of chances which you expect as an away team to concede, but overall I thought we were the dominant side in that first half.

"Second half, they came out quite brightly and we just switched off on the set-play and they got the opening goal which was a disappointment.

"But we came back strongly and were able to get back on level terms. Then obviously the game changed from our point of view with Walters getting sent off and we just had to dig in and show quality and character and that's what we did and credit to the guys."

Red card

Regarding the red-card incident, he believed both players had their foot high going for a bouncing ball between the pair.

"Unfortunately for the Norwich player, Jon has caught him," added Hughes. "It's going to be deemed as serious foul play but I think it's just one of those situations where unfortunately Jon's caught him and he's gone down and the referee has given a straight red.

"So it's one of those occasions where you don't really think that the punishment fits the crime because we're going to lose him for three games and given the situation in that moment, then it seems a little bit hard to take.

"But that's how it's been for us just lately so I think maybe that helps us in terms of the character and the determination that we showed after that because we weren't to be denied today."